Yoga and Meditation - How Can You Prevent Work Related Stress ?

by Anthony D'Agostino

Follow these simply stress reduction techniques to improve you work day. Plan Regular Breaks. Plan short breaks during the day. Take a moment to stretch out, take several deep breaths, get up and take a short walk. Finally make sure to take a moment in reflective thought, and to apply the principles of yoga and meditation to your workday.

Plan Regular Breaks. Plan short breaks during the day. Take a moment to stretch out, take several deep breaths, get up and take a short walk. Anything to clear your mind and change your environment for a few minutes will do. Especially at lunch, try to get away from the office for a while.

Give Yourself Plenty of Time in The Morning. Don't rush. Give your self an extra 15 minutes to get to work each day. Don't add to your stress levels by having to worry about be late to work in the morning.

Create Balance. Make sure that you have enough time planned for family, friends, social activities and personal pursuits. All work and no play is a recipe for increased stress.

Prioritize. Make a spreadsheet, that lists three categories ranking from highest, most important (must do today type tasks) to lowest, least important (can do whenever I get around to it type tasks). Then tackle these tasks in order of priority with the most important getting your utmost attention first, and the lowest only getting your attention after all higher ranking tasks have been completed. Review your list periodically and clean it up. Discard those lowest ranking tasks that still haven't been completed. If they aren't important enough to complete after several weeks, let them go.

Break large projects up into smaller ones. When a large project seems overwhelming, simply break it up into smaller bite sized components. Then prioritize the pieces and tackle each smaller task in order of importance until the entire project is done.

* Delegate. Let go of the need to control every aspect of the job. When others can handle a particular part of a task, why not let them? You will immediately release stress when you allow others to help.

On a more subtle level you can use the intelligence you gain from practicing yoga and meditation to help. Use your increased self awareness to attune to your emotions and their impact while, using insight and intuition to guide you in your decision making. Use your increased levels of self control to better adapt to your changing circumstances and job environment. Use your relationship skills to understand and react to others, while inspiring, and influencing those around you by becoming a strong positive role model.

Yoga and meditation provide amazing ways to reduce levels of stress and anxiety in the workplace.

Yoga Is Good For Stress Management

By Michael Russell

Yoga is very good in stress management. Research has also shown that Hatha Yoga - the type of yoga practiced in the West - if practiced regularly, has a significant impact on ones muscular strength, flexibility, balance and endurance. Studies done on a group of people, who practiced yoga, revealed that after eight weeks - on average - the flexibility of this group improved by 14% to 35%.

The body/spirit/mind union together with breathing also brings about emotional benefits. It has been reported that people who practice yoga say that they felt less stressed out and sleep better. It also enables one to handle stress better, whether it is family or work related.

So how does one get started? The first step is to have an open mind. Many people are of the mistaken opinion that one has to be flexible in order to do yoga. This is not so – less flexible individuals generally see results faster.

Next you need to join - preferably - a beginner’s class that has a qualified yoga teacher. At first you may have to try out a few different types of classes and see what suits you best - as there are many types of yoga. Generally, Hatha Yoga would be the recommended type for a beginner; as it is the most gentle and flowing type.

Sometimes you may have joined a class that may be a little bit ahead of you and this might cause you to worry whether you are doing it properly or not. Do not worry about it; all that matters is what your body feels in each stretch and how relaxed you can allow yourself to be with each pose. Remember, practice makes perfect.

It is important to understand that no two people have the same level of flexibility. If your teacher instructs you to do a particular pose and if you feel your body cannot handle it, but everyone else seems to be doing it, DO NOT force your body to do it. You might end up injuring yourself.

Concentrating on your breathing is very vital in yoga and is the key to stress management. Your teacher will tell you when you should inhale and when you should exhale when you are working through your poses. It is recommended that you breathe through your nose only, as this helps keep the body heat in and the mind focused. Practicing yoga with bare feet is generally recommended as it has a twofold purpose. One is, it will help you not to slip when you do the standing poses and second, you fully articulate and exercise your feet when you do not wear shoes.

Any type of clothing can be worn for yoga as long as it is comfortable. They should not be too big for you as it might get in the way with some postures. A leotard or bike shorts and a loose T-shirt short are fine.

Most often a yoga lesson ends with simply lying on one’s back with the arms by the side, eyes closed and taking deep breaths. This is known as the corpse position and it helps in one’s relaxation.

Natural Treatment For Stress & Anxiety - Yoga

By Ian J Spencer

You would have definitely heard of yoga, which is one of the hot favorites in the USA today. The Western world is gradually looking into the secrets of youth and health that ancient civilization of the East followed. The Indian civilization is one of the oldest and extremely rich in scientific applications not only in medicine but also in engineering, physics, mathematics, astrology and astronomy among others.

Yoga has four branches that cover the journey of any human being who wishes to attain oneness with the Universe and enlightenment. Walking on this path would also ensure that your body stays free of diseases and human weaknesses without any dependency on food and basic life-supporting comforts. Yoga not only diseases-proofs your body but also tunes your mind to find and understand the Eternal Truth.

1. Kriya yoga or karma yoga - this covers the free will of a human being whereby they make their choices in life and the consequences of these choices on his or her life
2. Bhakti yoga - or attaining liberation through prayer and worship of God
3. Gyana yoga - or enlightenment through learning and acquiring of knowledge, and
4. Raja yoga - or achieving enlightenment with the exclusive help of your mind, ignoring the body completely

You do not need to adopt the austerity of yoga in its complete form. The beauty of yoga is that you can use the exercises this science prescribes without worrying about the rest of the doctrine and still profit from it. Two things are extremely important when you learn yoga:

(i) you need to learn yoga from an accredited and recognized guru or yoga practitioner, and
(ii) you need to do it at the dawn, on an empty stomach, or at bedtime daily - if you want it to really work for you

Yoga can help fight any disease whatsoever that plagues human beings, even cancer. It is excellent for controlling and reversing anxiety. It is also exceptionally potent in treating depression. I am not giving you the asanas (postures) that are prescribed for controlling and treating anxiety and depression because I do not want you to try these exercises on your own. Do not be tempted to buy the much-advertised DVDs from the market unless you have learnt the postures from a guru.

The danger of initiating yoga on your own is that a mistake in getting the right posture might not only be useless, but also might harm you. Every asana is meant to touch, massage and coax into optimal functioning some organ or system in the body. No matter how clear is the DVD or instruction given in a book, you would not be able to see yourself performing the asana; nor would you be able to see whether you are doing it correctly or not. This is where a proficient yoga practitioner and teacher would be able to guide you. Once you learn the asanas correctly and you are confident about it, you can practice it at home alone without anyone's help.

Yoga when combined with meditation can be an exceptional tool to defuse anxiety and depression. It is also extremely beneficial for people who suffer from sleep disorders due to anxiety or depression. You can however, go for yoga without the meditations component and you would be profited nonetheless.

Yoga For Diabetes - Proper Breathing For Stress Reduction and Glucose Control

By Bradley Kapture

Can you remember as a child going to the doctor and having him place his cold stethoscope on your chest? "Now take a big inhale breath". If you are like me I recall expanding my chest, lifting my shoulders and pulling my shoulder blades back. Right? Wrong! As a culture the way we sit, drive, stand and a lack of knowledge in the proper mechanics of breathing has created a health crisis. In addition to this, the vanity factor of pulling our belly in tight and not allowing it to flow with the breath has compounded this chronic condition of hypoventilation.

As a result of this hypoventilation the average person uses only 10% of their lung capacity. This shallow breathing pattern is associated with the "fight or flight' syndrome. This syndrome drives blood glucose levels high and also inhibits the body from producing insulin. The result is a type 2 diabetes train wreck! To compound the problem, without proper breathing the body becomes a toxic waste dump and an easy target for a variety of other diseases.

The mechanism of breathing though normally automatic can be consciously controlled as well. Proper techniques of conscious breathing can eliminate stress and the high blood glucose levels caused by the fight or flight syndrome. In yoga these techniques are referred to as pranayama, the third action in my yoga method to manage diabetes.

Action 3 Pranayama

Yoga breathing techniques

Pranayama teaches you to use the other 90% of your lungs and to neutralize the stress that contributes to high blood sugars associated with diabetes. It also provides a deep cleansing of the body's tissues and helps treat such problems as high blood pressure, irritability and disturbed sleep. Pranayama breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic response calms the body and neutralizes the stress and anxiety triggered by an overactive sympathetic nervous system.

There are a wide variety of techniques in pranayama for both energizing and healing the body. However the first lesson of pranayama is to master the proper flow of breath itself.

An overview of the mechanism of breath

The primary muscle of respiration is the diaphragm. The diaphragm is a dome shaped muscle that sits in the center of the torso separating the chest and abdominal cavities.

When you inhale the diaphragm pushes down to create a larger space in the chest and in turn drawing more breath into the lungs. To take full advantage of this process and draw a full breath you must allow the belly to become soft and expand as the diaphragm pushes down. This is simply how we are designed. As you exhale the diaphragm relaxes and pulls back up towards the chest and the belly contracts.

The secondary muscles of respiration are the intercostals, (these are the muscles between the ribs), and the abdominals. For the sake of developing proper breathing begin to focus on these secondary muscles and consciously draw your belly in a bit tighter on the exhale breath to help further empty the lungs. This action will also have the counter action of triggering a more complete inhale on the next breath drawn. Now let's put the proper mechanics of breath to work with a pranayama technique.

Stress response pranayama technique

This simple little technique can be used at any time to reel yourself back in and keep your blood sugars in check. Try this a few times at home first to get the rhythm right and then you will be able to comfortably use it anywhere you go.

Step One: Breathe in through the nose for a brisk 4 count. (Remember let your belly be soft and allow it to expand on the inhale breath).

Step Two: Hold the breath for a brisk 4 count.

Step Three: Breathe out through the nose for a brisk 8 count. (As you exhale the breath pull the belly in tight to squeeze all of the air out).

The whole cycle should only take about 10 seconds. If for any reason you find it difficult to hold your breath or if you find yourself a little dizzy, shorten the hold and the exhale by 2 counts each.

That's it! Just practice this prescription for eight or ten cycles any time you find yourself "ready to blow" and repeat as necessary. It works like a charm and the refills are unlimited!